The recent proliferation of electronic devices for communication, information management and recreation has taken routine computing power far away from the desk-bound personal computer. Users are using devices such as cell phones, camera phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), not only in the office and in the home, but also in the field and on the road. There is a diverse range of possible applications for such devices, including communication, business, navigation, entertainment and even managing basic daily activities. Many users today only use a single device for a single task, for example, using cell phones for making and receiving phone calls. However, these devices are no longer single-function devices. They are capable of creating various types of data, for instance, electronic mail, voice messages, photos, video, etc. Increasing the number of functions of a device increases the level of personalization to the users.
Despite the increased functionalities of the mobile devices, there exist significant challenges for businesses to deliver advertisements or other commercial information to the mobile users. One of the problems is that the mobile users have to pay for the delivery of the advertisements because they are being charged for the data delivery when the advertisement messages are sent to the mobile users. Another problem is that many of the advertisements are created with multimedia data content, and yet not all mobile devices are equipped to receive such multimedia data content unless the mobile users have subscribed to certain data plans with their cellular phone carriers.
Yet another problem is that information is typically pushed onto the mobile devices, whether the mobile users want to receive the information or not. A drawback of this push method of communication is that it is disruptive to the mobile users because it frequently demands for users' attention. The users may be overwhelmed with information and most of the information received may be regarded as spam data. In the event the mobile users would like to get information, such as checking stock prices or sports scores. In this form of communication, information is pulled by the users, such as in the form of navigating, browsing, or checking for information update on the Internet. One drawback of this mode of communication is that the users have to devote the time and effort to navigate through multiple links or web pages in order to retrieve the information, which is time consuming and sometimes the information interested to the users are not yet available, for example, the final score is not available because the game has not yet finished.
Therefore, there is a need for method and system for communicating information with a mobile device that address the drawbacks of conventional methods described above. In particular, there is a need for interactive delivery of data content to mobile devices. And there is a need for delivering information the users want and at the same time reducing the disruption and the time in obtaining such information.